By Rick Karlin

Updated 8:46 pm, Wednesday, February 26, 2014

Troy's Ark Community Charter School got a reprieve on Wednesday after state officials agreed to delay a decision on the school's fate, at least for a few more weeks.

"We feel very positive about the way it went," said Steve Axelrod, chairman of the school's board of trustees, following a meeting of SUNY's Charter School Institute in New York City.

The institute, which oversees SUNY-licensed charter schools, had previously recommended closing the 220-student K-6 school based on what its analysis described as persistently low test scores.

But Axelrod and others questioned the way the test scores were evaluated, arguing that by at least some measures the Ark was doing as well or better than the Troy city district where most of its kids come from.

The school serves some of the city's poorest youngsters, with 90 percent of students qualifying for free or reduced-price lunch, compared to 65 percent for the surrounding Troy district. The school began as an after-school program in one of the city's public housing projects.

Complicating matters in gauging the school's performance was the state's multiyear shift to the new Common Core education standards and the new tests that accompany them.

The school's small size was also an issue: With less than two dozen students in fourth and sixth grades, a handful of poor test scores can quickly drag down the entire school's average.

Charter school supporters agreed that the new testing regimen was a complicating factor.

"The (closure) recommendation was putting undue weight on the new test scores," said Bill Phillips, president of the Northeast Charter Schools Network. He said one solution might be a shorter renewal period — two years rather than the standard five — with conditions, similar to the judgment granted to a troubled charter school in New York City run by the teachers union there.

Mainstream public school officials including teachers and administrators have for more than a year complained that the state Education Department has bungled the rollout of Common Core, in part by failing to provide enough guidance and materials to prepare for the tests.

Still, Charter School Institute officials said they had adjusted for the changes in their assessment of the Ark school, by discounting "absolute" test scores and instead looking at tests that measure student growth over time. Those findings, they said, suggested that students get no academic benefit by remaining in the school.

They also found poor use of a computerized reading program, and said teachers at the Ark may actually spend too much time with individual students.

"While individualized questioning can give a teacher insight into each student's level of understanding, such time-consuming techniques slow the pace of lessons, resulting in covering less content and giving students who are not directly interacting with the teacher opportunities to be off-task," stated part of a report by the Charter School Institute.

Supporters cited high satisfaction in parent surveys. Axlerod said there's a 90-student waiting list to get into the school.

Troy Mayor Lou Rosamilia said he had written a letter of support for the Ark, crediting the school with helping revitalization efforts in the surrounding neighborhood. But Troy city school officials, including school board President Jason Schofield and Superintendent John Carmello, asked him to rethink his support.

"They asked my to reconsider, and I did," Rosamilia said, explaining that he sent an email withdrawing his letter of support.

Public school district officials are frequently unhappy with charter schools because per-student aid comes from their budgets. They have long complained that such a funding system puts them in a bind, even though charters are responsible for the students.

SUNY trustees will likely decide on the school's future in the next few weeks during another open meeting.

Axelrod said they would hope to get a decision by April, which is when they run their lottery for new applicants and begin to issue teacher contracts for the coming school year.

Three Capital Region charter schools authorized by SUNY have closed since 2010. All of them were located in Albany: New Covenant, Albany Preparatory Academy and Achievement Academy.